As many of you probably recognize, the brain changes dramatically with chronic pain, and brain stimulation ultimately works because it helps to restore normal brain function.

There are some authorities who argue that one can improve their pain condition behaviorally by focusing effort on using the parts of their brain that have become compromised and avoiding the parts used to excess. Memory and executive decision-making, for example, suffer dramatically from chronic pain, whereas fear, anxiety, and catastrophizing become excessive. Brain imaging studies reveal the parts of the brain in chronic pain that are hyperactive and hypoactive. With many or most chronic pain conditions, and certainly all CRPS, the perception of pain ridiculously exceeds the pain signal generated at the painful area. In essence, the pain is mostly if not entirely manufactured by the brain (this is not to say it is made up; it's very real). Extinguishing the pain becomes virtually impossible, and medications and conventional treatments will fail most patients.

I'm personally acquainted with the guy who runs the new pain program at the Betty Ford Clinic in Palm Springs, CA, and he claims that with intensive therapy all of his pain patients can gain pain reductions of 90% or so during the 6-week program. It's very expensive (roughly $1,000/day, which insurance may not cover), focused heavily on addiction recovery (they will take you off all opioids and benzos and engage you with the 12-step recovery program), and takes advantage of group therapy, which he insists is very helpful. I've been trying to convince my wife to give this a try, but she is not ready for it yet. I personally am convinced that many pain patients will benefit from a program like this and regain their normal lives.